Getting through to him might be difficult for the effective altruism community. Also, because of how small and unrecognized a movement it is, how much more sensitive relatively small philanthropic actions are when the amount of money moved is absolutely large, and how much philanthropists filter many requests, I doubt he’d heed our recommendations even if we did contact him. This is the case with major private philanthropists like Bill and Melinda Gates, Mark Zuckerburg, and Warren Buffett. Effective altruism has mad some unofficial (i.e.,grassroots) or semi-official (i.e., led by community leaders, but not official organizations like the CEA) efforts to contact these major philanthropists. These are some of the world’s biggest private philanthropists, and I’ve never noticed them paying anything more than lip service to effective altruism, being involved with this movement for three years.This is despite effective altruism being allied with other major philanthropists, like Good Ventures, Elon Musk, and Peter Thiel.
Prince Alwaleed bin Talal has entered into a bracket of philanthropy which is beyond the scope of what effective altruism has impacted. Effective altruism has a track record of effecting the donations of billionaires to the tune of up to ten million dollars donated, but hasn’t impacted multi-billion dollar private philanthropy to the tune of more than ten million dollars. Note I don’t blame or resent such major philanthropists for ignoring or neglecting recommendations from effective altruism. At the scale of being among the biggest philanthropists in the world, one has different priorities and economies of scale, and will attract noisy requests for donation at greater levels. From an objective perspective, there’s no big reason to expect Prince Talal or BIll and Melinda Gates or whoever to magically know effective altruism is better than anything else, or that we’re magically unbiased in our requests.
So, while I won’t discourage someone from making the effort, I don’t predict success for us in directly influencing Prince Talal’s future donations. Perhaps being part of a mass coalition, or being the grassroots arm of a letter-writing campaign, effective altruism could play a part in influencing Prince Talal’s donations to a more visible and credible but nonetheless relatively effective charity, such as OxFam.
A friend of mine also shared this article on Facebook, and here’s a comment of mine from there regarding this announcement and its implications for outreach from effective altruism and the philanthropic community at large.
Before reading, I was skeptical of the value of this man’s donations, as I pessimistically thought they might not be directed at worthy charity. Now, I’m impressed, elated, and surprised, but curious on what path this man led in life leading him to a worldview much different than I’d expect from Saudi royalty.
Let’s keep track of this man for the future as an example of a philanthropist who cuts across religious and ethnocultural lines in the name of good deeds. Effective altruism, and Westernized philanthropy more broadly, might feel like a wealthy club for secular or Judeo-Christian culture edging out others. This man can act as a grand counterpoint to that. I wouldn’t expect most people of Middle Eastern descent naturalized to Western nations to be much influenced by his example. However, this man may have great influence in the Middle East, especially among the disproportionate number of billionaires in the region. On the other hand, I think it’d be a poor tactic to make this man a lone symbol of what philanthropy from the Middle East would look like. That’s because generalizing from a single example of what Middle Eastern philanthropy can look like could cause conflict and backlash in the Muslim world as divided as it is.
Saudi prince declared he’ll give $32bn. looks like a big opportunity
Getting through to him might be difficult for the effective altruism community. Also, because of how small and unrecognized a movement it is, how much more sensitive relatively small philanthropic actions are when the amount of money moved is absolutely large, and how much philanthropists filter many requests, I doubt he’d heed our recommendations even if we did contact him. This is the case with major private philanthropists like Bill and Melinda Gates, Mark Zuckerburg, and Warren Buffett. Effective altruism has mad some unofficial (i.e.,grassroots) or semi-official (i.e., led by community leaders, but not official organizations like the CEA) efforts to contact these major philanthropists. These are some of the world’s biggest private philanthropists, and I’ve never noticed them paying anything more than lip service to effective altruism, being involved with this movement for three years.This is despite effective altruism being allied with other major philanthropists, like Good Ventures, Elon Musk, and Peter Thiel.
Prince Alwaleed bin Talal has entered into a bracket of philanthropy which is beyond the scope of what effective altruism has impacted. Effective altruism has a track record of effecting the donations of billionaires to the tune of up to ten million dollars donated, but hasn’t impacted multi-billion dollar private philanthropy to the tune of more than ten million dollars. Note I don’t blame or resent such major philanthropists for ignoring or neglecting recommendations from effective altruism. At the scale of being among the biggest philanthropists in the world, one has different priorities and economies of scale, and will attract noisy requests for donation at greater levels. From an objective perspective, there’s no big reason to expect Prince Talal or BIll and Melinda Gates or whoever to magically know effective altruism is better than anything else, or that we’re magically unbiased in our requests.
So, while I won’t discourage someone from making the effort, I don’t predict success for us in directly influencing Prince Talal’s future donations. Perhaps being part of a mass coalition, or being the grassroots arm of a letter-writing campaign, effective altruism could play a part in influencing Prince Talal’s donations to a more visible and credible but nonetheless relatively effective charity, such as OxFam.
A friend of mine also shared this article on Facebook, and here’s a comment of mine from there regarding this announcement and its implications for outreach from effective altruism and the philanthropic community at large.